The State I live in getting more and more dumberer

Alabama dumb-assiness time. This state is in what legislators refer to as pro-ration. Meaning there is not enough money to budget for everything. This is mostly because for many years Alabama has lured corporations in with offers of charging them no taxes. And by-god they's sticking to it. Not enough that there are 4 million people here that will work for $8/HR. We are apparently the new China (only less people and drunker).

So, what do you do when there's not enough money? Cut something. Entitlements. Hmm. Let's see. Oh, education! Hell yeah, we've got too many teachers here, anyway (and you should see the list of shit you have to buy and send with an elementary school student already). What else? MEDICAID. They are cutting funding for that. The real problem is that every dollar Alabama cuts from its medicaid budget loses TWO matching dollars from the Federal Government. 3 for 1! What a bargain.

The state is defunding ALL mental health facilities! Think on that for a second. All mental health facilities in ALABAMA are being defunded and CLOSED. The idea is to send all those patients to 'group homes' and 'halfway houses'. That's some scary shit, right there.

This will also cause hospice service to be unavailable for many people.

And worst of all "It is very unfortunate that many dialysis patients will not be able to receive treatment." WTF? They're just supposed to go home and die, I guess. Bless their hearts.

So with all of this going on, you know what was the big news story today on local TV?

The state legislature is debating a bill that would allow the ten commandments to be displayed in schools and state buildings. Total waste of time and money (in a state that has none) that will be overturned by the Federal government. FUCK FUCK FUCK!

At least everyone will know which candidates are the most religious at election time, which is the whole point, I guess.

I am so disgusted and embarrassed.

I am now serious about getting out of here. At least to Georgia where they are a little more progressive and have FREE college for my kids (thanks to the lottery, which is the devil.)

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At least your not Mississippi lol!! The South has had a cock swinging contest to see who is the most religious. My state of North Carolina is pretty damn close with the Amendment One law as well as other sourthern states that have currently banned or planning on banning Shariah law. As of now I have lost hope in America. The sheer volume of stupidity that is entrenched is just too much for us to overcome. When we put tax cuts for the "job creators" over education, infrastructural investment, and basic healthcare we are a nation that has their priorities backwards. It may take losing our superpower status for the United States to finally wake up and realize how far we have fallen.

I was born and raised in Mississippi and its worse than Alabama or any state for that matter. Gallup asked if religion was important in their life and 85% said yes making Mississippi the most religious of the fifty states and Alabama a close second with 82%. Now guess what state is the worse for women to live in, yep you guessed it Mississippi and here's why"

22% of women are impoverished, they earn the lowest average wages in the country, with a median income of $28,879, and college-graduation rates are grim at only 21%. Also, while 68% of Mississippi women are overweight or obese, Only a quarter of the state’s women have health insurance. With such a depressing state of affairs, is it really any wonder that Mississippi has never had a woman in Congress or as governor — and the state legislature is only 15% female?

To continue: Mississippi’s reproductive rights record is equally abysmal. Considering 99 percent of counties have no abortion provider and Mississippi accounted for 0.2 percent of abortions in the U.S. in 2008, the state has a de facto ban on the procedure due to lack of access. In 2011, state lawmakers tried but failed to pass a Personhood Amendment that would identify life as beginning at conception, a move that would have further eroded women’s reproductive choices. But in this legislative session, lawmakers have advanced bills that would ban abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected (around six weeks) and require doctors to be present when a woman takes medication to induce an abortion. The law is meant to stop doctors from prescribing via telephone, a move that allows physicians to serve women who cannot travel to one of the state’s only two abortion providers.

More recently The State Legislature tried but failed to close the now one and only clinic in Mississippi that provided abortions for women under the guise that it was protecting the health of the women.

Mississippi has the highest teen birthrate in the nation while New Hampshire has the lowest, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, following up on a report that found the incidence of pregnancy among U.S. teens was falling.

Mississippi reported 55 births per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19 in 2010, more than 60 percent above the U.S. average, according to state data released on Tuesday. New Hampshire's rate was less half the national average at 15.7 births for the same age group. These birthrates are directly linked to abstinence only sex education which is directly linked to the Christian Fundamentalist that run the state.

In my 60+ years I've had the opportunity to talk to people about different issues and of course sex education in public schools has come up and is a hot button issue especially in the bible belt where I live.

When I've ask people why they don't want comprehensive sex education taught in public schools one of the most ignorant but common answers is: "It will make Kids more curious and cause them to experiment by having sex". So in their world just telling kids not to "do it" is all that is needed.

Even when you show them that teen birthrate in states that teach abstinence only is higher than states that have a comprehensive sex education program they don't believe it.

This is mostly because for many years Alabama has lured corporations in with offers of charging them no taxes.

Here in Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett promised that if elected governor he would veto any bill that tried to place any kind of tax on the money generated from the drilling for gas from our shale deposits. The republican governor has kept his promise as well, despite deep cuts in funding to education. School kids and their working parents just can't compete in campaign donations with big business.

At least the Dover school district got a court smackdown when they tried to include ID in the school curriculum. The fundie push still isn't going away though.